June 25, 2006
food phobias
Pickles?
...Pickles?
It doesn't stop there. Check out the woman who's deathly afraid of mustard.
Torturing these people with the objects of their phobias sounds horrible, but that's daytime television for ya. I wonder why all the people in this episode are women. Maybe the chance to be humiliated on Maury doesn't appeal as much to guys. As weird as it is to see a woman cower at the sight of a mustard mountain, it might be weirder to see a guy in the same position. Ah well, gender roles.
Uh...soo...does anyone have a phobia they want to share? Or does anyone care to explain the pickle thing?
Posted by roboppy at 11:24 PM
Comments (30)
I remember hating pickles as a kid. Whenever I got my McDonalds cheeseburger I'd make my mom eat the pickle.
Now that I'm older, I suddenly can't live without pickles in my Subway subs (notice the change in restaurant preference).
Perhaps it's a childhood thing? Their cat got killed by a giant pickle or somesuch?
Ok, is this for real? I mean, come on, it looks like a huge hoax!! Did you see a tear drop, because I didn't. I'm waiting for Ashton Kutcher to come out and tell us we've been punk'd. Maybe her parents told her that if she was a bad girl, the pickles would climb out of the jar in the fridge and smother her in her sleep? And she's a waitress? She ran out of her shoes and almost knocked someone over!
Lord have mercy.
Haha! Crazy Americans! Where else in the world could there be someone who's terrified of pickles who is a *waitress* and someone scared of mustard that used to work at Burger King. Thanks Robyn my day began with a smile (and a giggle and then laughter) :)
Posted by: G at June 26, 2006 3:33 AM [#]
Wow, who knew how much fear a pickle could instill. I don't have any phobias, nor can I explain this girl's fear, but all I know is that she needs to get a life.
I guess she made for great daytime TV, it was funny watching her cower in fear at pickle factory...the voyeuristic journey into the secret life of pickle phobia.
We get Maury Povich here in Aus, I woder if this episode has aired?
Gerald: I think the freakiness is intensified by the ominous music and the eerie typography. This is high quality stuff, folks!
Adalmin: Feline murder by pickle, THAT'S IT!!! I seriously wonder if she had a really bad pickle experience as a kid or something. The woman with the dog phobia saw her sister get attacked by a dog, so that kinda makes sense...
Mochene: I wondered if it was a hoax too, but I have no idea why anyone would make up a pickle phobia. Seems too weird to make up? :O And the way she freaked out, holy crap. They all ran likes nuuuts.
G: Yes, insane! Oh my god. WHY WOULD SHE BE A WAITRESS OF ALL THINGS?!
jenjen: I wonder if she got cured! I can't find that out. FOr her sake and...well, anyone she hopes to be friends with, I hope she's better now. Uhh. :P
I talked to a woman once who had a fear of mayonnaise and all "foods that float in a jar of piss-colored liquid" is how she put it. That included olives, artichoke hearts, and pickles. I guess some people might make the visual connection between pickles and a preserved biological specimen in a jar, or something. She said with mayo, it was a texture thing from her childhood and her dad and brothers would chase her around the house with a spoon of mayo to tease her, so that started it. None of these foods were allowed in her house or in any foods she prepared, which was fine with her husband and kids, apparently.
I myself am not phobic about any foods, even though i don't eat meat--a lot of people assume I'm afraid of meat or something, nope. A bit grossed out by the idea of giblets or chitlins or head cheese, though.
FWIW, i think those women had real phobias. I have seen people react that way about things less trivial than mustard or pickles--like cats, or even people who look a certain way.
Posted by: karen at June 26, 2006 10:01 AM [#]
I can't eat a certain noodle dish where I live. It's called pancit palabok. I had a bad experience eating it when I was in kindergarten. That's childhood trauma for you. :)
My cousin is afraid of duck. He got really sick when we went to China, and he's convinced it was the duck's fault.
Oh well, the quirks of humanity...
I have a sort-of phobia of mayonnaise.
If something looks like it might have it, I'll frantically ask around to see if it does. Or I just won't eat it.
Anything with a white sauce is suspect for me.
I refused to eat Falafal sandwiches for a long time because I was sure Tahini sauce had the evil stuff in it.
I have no idea why I have this fear or where it comes from.
It IS very weird.
Deb: HAHA! What a good catch she has.
Karen: I have a friend who doesn't like anything with mayo, but she's not afraid of it. I think it's a taste thing, not a remnant of childhood torture. :O As for the piss colored liquid...um...interesting. Can't say I've ever heard of that before.
CHILINS! Never had em. I'll try em...once, maybe. I like the name.
Aw, being afraid of kitties would suck. Then again, I'm afraid of...giant mutant bugs, not that I see many of those.
Daisy: Mm, noods! I wannit. Sorry to hear about your bad experience though. I can't think of any really bad food experience I've had as a kid! I don't eat much duck, but that's just a taste thing.
Boutros: I'm not a big fan of brined things, although capers are cute and I find them kinda tasty depending on what food they're in. THEY'RE LIKE BABIES.
Dina: Another mayo phobia! Or...white creamy sauce phobia? Does that include sour cream and alfredo sauce (if you don't know what they are, I guess)? And you can't think of any reason for the phobia? Hm...
if she's a pickle phobiac than i'm a pickles maniac!!! how can she be scared of this succulent delicious and mouth-watering nutrious food!ban her !!
Posted by: rat_racer at June 26, 2006 6:05 PM [#]
Hmm. Up until a year ago I HATED both pickels and mustard. Not a phobia, I just hated the taste. I *wanted* to like them, and tried eating them on several occasions. My cousin LIVED on pickels and they always looked so yummy when she ate them...I tried eveytime and they tasted bad to me. Now I love them....it was like BAM! I like pickels and mustard. Wierd how tastebuds change...
*ahem* back to the topic....
But yeah....scared to death of them? Ummm...maybe the pickel is a phallic symbol to the one lady....but I have no CLUE with the mustard.... ODD.
Being scared of food is something I don't understand. We eat it. It's not like it's going to jump out and strangle you. If there's anything that does that then maybe I'd have a food phobia. But a pickle? What could possibly be scarey about a pickle?
Posted by: From Our Kitchen at June 27, 2006 1:14 AM [#]
I wonder if she is scared of a plain ol' cucumber as well....
Posted by: kaitlin Hess at June 27, 2006 1:23 AM [#]
my friend has this fear on mangoes, she couldnt stand looking at mangoes, people eating mangoes, etc. we didnt beleive her, so we put a mango in her bag, when she saw it she freaked out and cried and started hyperventilating.
Posted by: joey at June 27, 2006 6:15 AM [#]
rat racer: Succulent delicious...what kind of cucumbers are you eating? And where can I get em? :P I think cucumbers are alright, but nothing I'd dream about eating.
Sera: Whoa, that's an interesting taste change. I don't think anything like that has ever happened to me. I look at a lot of things as neutral, hehe.
Mustard....maybe yellow pastes are just FRIGHTENING!
From Our Kitchen: NOBODY KNOWS WHAT'S SCARY ABOUT IT! The girl = a gazillion times scarier than the pickle.
Kailin: Haha, I guess she would be. Damn, that sucks. What if it's sliced up though?
Joey: ...Mangoes?! That's disturbing. :O
I disgust mustard, ketchup and mayo (some slight exceptions).
: )
I don't eat meat very much. Unless it's the only there plopped in front of me I'll nibble at it or not eat at all.
Phobias. Hm... I Don't know if I have any. Maybe I do? Like, I can't stand looking at beehives. I want to step on them. OR anything with little dots in them that, isn't symmetrical, that I want to step on. It makes my eye aggitated. Does that sound weird? I can't explain it. I'll have to show you.
OOH. Balloons. I do not like being near plastic balloons. If someone plays one near me - because they do it anyway to annoy me - I will freak out. What's worse is when someone pursues to annoy you to make you uncomfortable. I want to punch people who do that.
I am a transman and gender is Maury's favorite means of riducule. Friends of mine have been on his show and they say that most of the life stories are made up and that he coerces his guests into shock value statements as they had personally experianced this as guests on his show. So his understanding demenaor is fake and he is freaked out by gender issues so it doen't surpirse me that he picked on women as freakophobes in the food world.
Posted by: David Axxx at June 27, 2006 2:51 PM [#]
Teddy: I'm thinking she just had a really bad experience. Of what magnitude....I don't want to know.
D: As much as you hate those things, they won't make you flee and cry, at least. Or else you would be even weirder than MEEE!! I assume it's just a taste thing, like..ye know, my aversion to raw tomatoes. Taste and smell! Eeh.
The only meat I've eaten in the past...many days is fish. Eel. ...Oh, you don't like eel, hehe.
BEEHIVES?! Little dots?! What the hell? Maybe you are weirder! ;)
One of the women on the show was afraid of balloons. I'm glad I never made you a balloon animal. That was one of my favorite hobbies as a kid, haha.
David: Enough people must watch the show to make it worth producing, eh?...yeah, that's sad. It must be horrible to be a "guest". I wonder why people want to go on it though. And I'm surprised there aren't more results for this.
i dont wanna sound like a perv but, i feel sorry for the guy (if there is) she's dating lol
Posted by: mike at June 28, 2006 12:08 AM [#]
Robyn, Though I think that the whole thing is a fake, I can sort of empathize with the woman. Though not to the degree of fear that she showed.
I have a thing about fresh cherries. When I was a young lad of 8, my family used to live in Ohio and we used to drive over the border to Canada for vacation and to enjoy the lovely summer produce. One time while we were in Toronto, we stopped and bought a bag of beautiful shiny large red cherries. Being a young gourmand in the making, I was making a pig of myself and eating away with abandon. However, the way I was eating the cherries was a bit different. I hated to spit out the pits so I would bit the cherry in half and remove the pit. One time I looked inside the cherry after the pit was removed and I saw a green worm lying inside the pit chamber. I did not touch a single cherry unless they were pitted or were Maraschino preserved and drenched in liquor.
I am a little better now after 30 years but the irrational fear will sometimes creep up on me whenever I'm in a Costco and I see a bag of cherries.
Posted by: Jeffrey at June 28, 2006 5:33 PM [#]
she lost the shoe and kept going
Posted by: josh at July 4, 2006 11:17 AM [#]
I'm thinking it's some sort of Freudian thing. *shifty eyes*
I feel kind of sorry for those women, but the whole thing is really bizzare.
Posted by: Anita at July 4, 2006 1:48 PM [#]
Psychology grad student entering the house :)
Phobias are unnatural fears. That's the whole point. The fear is not natural. Being scared of pickles is no different that being scared of heights, or the dark. It may seem ridiculous to us, but it's not to be made fun of because the fear is very real to people who have these phobias, regardless of what triggers them.
Maury is not a liscened psychologist/psychiatrist and it's appaling and insensitive for him to try and get people to "get over it". It can take weeks, maybe even months, to help someone with a phobia- not within an hour. That poor girl is now severely traumatized all in the name of ratings.
i can't be in the same room as grapes . . everything about them grosses me out, id rather pick up dog poo than touch one. i know its bizarre, but i really can't help it.
Posted by: susannah at September 4, 2006 11:39 PM [#]
Maury is an idiot. The girl was sexually
abused when she was very young, and subconsciously developed a fear of pickles because it reminds her of male genitalia and being raped. She displaced her fear of male genitalia into pickles so that she could still live a normal life (boyfriend, sex, etc..) but never overcame her bad memories of being abused. I can't believe these idiots get paid millions for day-time talk shows.
Posted by: Dave at September 24, 2006 12:05 PM [#]
it's not all women:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Az10dr0xZY
Posted by: Stef at June 8, 2007 4:02 PM [#]
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What a freak
Posted by: Gerald at June 25, 2006 11:56 PM [#]